Heroes and Heroines don’t always wear capes, nor do they make a big fuss about their good doings, but that doesn’t mean they should go unnoticed. Melissa Kimble started My Creative Connection online, which is a safe-space for creatives of color to network and build their personal brands.

Not only does the website provide useful information, the twitter page does something amazing every month that brings all #blkcreatives from around the world together. For roughly an hour, these groundbreaking men and women participate in a #blkcreatives twitter chat where they discuss being a creative of color.

Once a month, Melissa chooses 2-3 creatives of color whom are making strides to being great to be the spokespeople for the chat. There are a few questions posed and followers can engage freely & safely with others during this chat.

Melissa Kimble is paving the way for something amazing and if you’re apart of the #blkcreatives world getting on board may be the best decision you’ve made this year! Check out our exclusive interview with the #blkcreative herself, Melissa Kimble.

What is My Creative Connection?

M: MYCC is a platform for young black creative millennials that provide community, resources, tools and strategies to help us create the lives that we see for ourselves. I’ve always been a writer,my educational background, is in journalism. It’s always been a goal of mine to be a journalist and when the economy crashed right when I gradated from college there were no jobs available for my field. I was working at Fed Ex in the hub, and I needed an outlet. I was coming across so many amazing people via Twitter. They had these great stories but no one was paying attention. It took me a couple years to really decide to put the idea out there. I didn’t really get intentional with it until last year when Mike Brown died..it woke me up in a way. It was like we cant just depend anymore or society or the world to tell our story. So we have to tell them ourselves. It reminded me to see the importance of community and what we can do and how we can function.

What are#blkcreatives?

M: #blkcreatives are just the movement , the army, the community around MYCC. It’s a space for young creatives of color to network and build with each other and support, encourage. Around that we have a monthly twitter chat on personal development topics. #blkcreatives is a vehicle that moves MYCC forward. It’s really all about making community. We live in a time now where the shit is hard and it’s tough in a lot of ways. It’s all about me and what can I get/gain instead of what we can do for each other. We need movement to counteract that epidemic for the community.

What prompted you to start the chats?

M: I work in social media and I’ve been participating in twitter chats for a very long time. I see them work and don’t work. I wanted to create an authentic conversation and discussion that we as black creatives go through. I felt like there was something missing. We have access to so much like how to grow brands, businesses , and blogs but we don’t know how to manage relationships, self-time, or dealing with cultural issues. We can’t get to building a business or brand because we aren’t dealing with the internal stuff. We have an unique perspective and outlook on life, and that comes from who we are as a people. We deal with different issues that Asian Americans or white people deal with. I wanted to create that platform.

What do you hope people get out of #blkcreatives?

M: So many goals, so many goals. I think initially I want people to feel like there is a space for them. They don’t feel isolated or alone, they feel like they have a community around what they are trying to do. Resources, information, opportunities, and exposure to literally move their missions for their lives forward. A job, internship, an event or if someone has a question about something I want that hashtag to really be an advocate for the group that it serves.

What is the future for My Creative Connection & #blkcreatives?

M: We recently had an event in ATL and this month we are doing NYC and Chicago. We to do more in person events to move the conversations online to offline to provide opportunities to connect and build in person. We want to create an umbrella of empowering energy. Also, we are moving into having a conference next year in fall 2016. I really want to flesh out the blog component because I definitely see it turning into an agency because I just see this issue how we create so much and contribute so much to the culture and we aren’t getting any recognition or financial gains at all. It’s frustrating because talented individuals aren’t getting what they’re worth. MYCC will address and solve this problem with a blog and community component to develop “the business” around this brand. I want to provide more tangible opportunities for people and more job opportunities too.